The CIMS team at our base at INCAE business school, Costa Rica.

'Most 10 year olds want cake, balloons, and lots of presents. Well, we're partial to a bit of that too, but what we really want is something that is much trickier to wrap up: sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers in Latin America. Finding viable solutions for those who grow 70% of the world's food is no easy thing, but we like a challenge. To mark our ten years our staff have been musing on where we’ve come from and where we’re going.

10 YEARS OF ROOTS IN THE SOIL AND BOOTS ON THE GROUND

CIMS researcher Melissa Menocal with coffee farmer William Corrales and his son Nicolas, San Roque de Naranjo, Costa Rica

For ten years our goal has been to support the livelihoods of small and medium sized farmers across Latin America, As part of our anniversary reflections we thought we’d ask one of the farmers who took part in one of our projects to give us his thoughts on whats happening in the world of agricultural supply chains

10 YEARS FIGURING OUT HOW SUPPLY CHAINS REALLY WORK

Andres Guevara of CIMS with David Sanchez and Manou Jindal of Nespresso on a field trip to establish a Monitoring and Evaluation project for the company’s coffee supply chain.

We're rigorous in what we do, conducting original field research to support our recommendations: Our strength: figuring out how a coffee bean or a pineapple or any other agricultural product gets from farm to cup or plant to plate, and advising on how to make that journey more sustainable and fair for all those involved.

“Ten years ago very few organizations understood what sustainable agriculture really meant”, says Chris Willie of Rainforest Alliance. “CIMS was one of them. Certification of“farm products is now mature, even mainstream, but is it effective? And how can it do more for farmers, the environment and consumers? Certifiers, NGOs and companies trust CIMS to provide answers to these questions. The answers are sometimes discomforting, often raise provocative questions, and are always accurate.'

10 YEARS TELLING IT AS IT IS

CIMS founder Lawrence Pratt addressing a Walmart Direct Farm summit held at INCAE business school in Costa Rica.

Over the past decade we've built relationships with some of the world's leading companies, development banks and NGOs. Our goal: making sure that the livelihoods of smallholder famers are central to a sustainable solution.

'If you want to understand the complexities of a smallholder agricultural supply chain and assess real impacts at farm level in Latin America, CIMS is an organization you want on your team” says David Browning, senior vice-president at Technoserve, a non-profit that develops business solutions to poverty. “Technoserve and CIMS share similar values and complementary approaches. We both put the farmer first, and firmly believe that evidence-based research is the only credible basis for influencing business decisions”.